Montana Tech Students Compete in National 2026 Safety Olympics
- Montana Tech students are preparing for the 2026 Safety Olympics, where they will demonstrate skills in incident investigation, hazard recognition, and safety training.
- Their innovation project focuses on using biochar to mitigate radon gas, a lung cancer risk, beneath home foundations.
- Competition events include identifying workplace safety violations in virtual reality and giving impromptu safety presentations.
- Hosted at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, the national competition aims to ready students for occupational health and safety careers.
Nebraska Maintains Workplace Safety Protections for Public Workers
- Nebraska lawmakers approved an amendment to Legislative Bill 397 to maintain state-level safety protections for public employees.
- The original bill aimed to repeal requirements for workplace safety committees, but the amendment ensures government workers retain Department of Labor oversight.
- These protections are important as federal OSHA regulations do not cover public-sector workplaces in Nebraska.
- The bill also includes proposals to eliminate a safety consultation program and remove safety compliance as a requirement for workers’ compensation.
Defining Compensability in Workplace Assaults
- Courts typically consider workplace assault injuries compensable if they result from sharing a professional environment.
- However, employers may successfully deny claims stemming from personal animosity or non-work-related outside circumstances.
- Establishing a defense requires companies to thoroughly investigate the cause of coworker altercations.
- Consequently, expected “horseplay” is often covered, while purely private disputes are not.